Industrial Policy

SPECIAL REPORT / EU plans to introduce new trade reciprocity rules that could block foreign companies from European contracts will prove a key battleground as member states prepare to debate a new industrial policy initiative next month.

SPECIAL REPORT / The absence of any reference to social issues in the European Commission's upcoming communication on industrial policy – seen by EurActiv – reflects an ongoing logjam over social policy among EU member states.

SPECIAL REPORT / A European Commission paper setting the future direction for industrial policy, to be published next month, marks a departure from the past by setting a clear preference for sectoral focuses. The aim is to avoid the pitfalls of past attempts to create supranational champions.

The European Commission should depart from its current silo thinking and look at specific industrial sectors from a holistic perspective, which takes into account competition rules, state aid and environmental policy in an international context, argues François Gayet.

SPECIAL REPORT / Innovative technologies will form the core of a new industrial policy that the European Commission will put forward next month. But its success relies on a sharp increase of the EU's budget, which will be a hard sell for cash-strapped EU nations struggling to contain their budget deficits.

SPECIAL REPORT / A European Commission communication to re-launch European industrial policy – to be published next month and seen by EurActiv – will face diffidence from member states left unconvinced by a string of unfulfilled initiatives and divided over what such a policy should deliver.

Policies governing the European Union's drive towards a low-carbon economy should not lose sight of the need to retain the bloc's industrial base, Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said in a newspaper column today (16 July).

Faced with manufacturing output that is still below its peak of 12% two years ago, the European Commission outlined plans on Thursday (28 October) aimed at revving up factories, textile mills and other industrial businesses.

Stimulating innovation and preventing companies from fleeing abroad are the keys to success for a new EU industrial policy, stressed French Industry Minister Christian Estrosi during a visit to Brussels yesterday (2 September). But one of the main potential weapons of the strategy, the controversial "country of origin" labelling, remains blocked at EU Council level.

Business leaders and trade groups put forward various models for an EU industrial policy during an event organised by the Confrontations Europe think-tank in Strasbourg this month. EurActiv France reports.

European industry ministers began mapping out a new industrial policy for Europe when they met in Brussels yesterday (1 March), stressing the need for a "coordinated and timely exit strategy" from the economic crisis.